Some nouns have to have “the” before it but seems like not all of them need it, so any explanations would be helpful!
edit: wow, didn’t expect so much traction on this. Thank you for your explanations! Interestingly, I’m actually a native English speaker but don’t really know grammar terminology all that well. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
In: 1233
It’s funny because in Australian English we wouldn’t say “I’m in school”. We’d say “I’m at school”.
It is interesting that this usage depends on English dialect and country. I’ll think of better examples soon, but it is the type of thing, when you move to a different country and want to say “Put the marbles in a line” you have to say “put the marbles in line” etc.
[edit: here is a not-great example, someone writing from Ireland, “….This may be a result of the influence of German-speaking immigrants on American English, as the German phrase ausfüllen can be directly translated to fill out. …Anecdotally though, it seems fill in is more common in British English. Here in Ireland we tend to use both, as we’re exposed to both British and American English quite often.”]
It is interesting that this usage depends on English dialect and country. I’ll think of better examples soon, but it is the type of thing, when you move to a different country and want to say “Put the marbles in a line” you have to say “put the marbles in line” etc.
[edit: here is a not-great example, someone writing from Ireland, “….This may be a result of the influence of German-speaking immigrants on American English, as the German phrase ausfüllen can be directly translated to fill out. …Anecdotally though, it seems fill in is more common in British English. Here in Ireland we tend to use both, as we’re exposed to both British and American English quite often.”]
It is interesting that this usage depends on English dialect and country. I’ll think of better examples soon, but it is the type of thing, when you move to a different country and want to say “Put the marbles in a line” you have to say “put the marbles in line” etc.
[edit: here is a not-great example, someone writing from Ireland, “….This may be a result of the influence of German-speaking immigrants on American English, as the German phrase ausfüllen can be directly translated to fill out. …Anecdotally though, it seems fill in is more common in British English. Here in Ireland we tend to use both, as we’re exposed to both British and American English quite often.”]
You’ve identified a rare example of the [locative case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locative_adverb) in English. (Well, possibly — depends on the analyst; also this is not the linguistics I was taught.) [Grammarphobia 2014](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/10/here-3.html) has a good discussion on the English locative, where it comes up, and why its classification is debatable. (The “existence” of these weird cases in English is usually debatable — they are relics of our deep Indo-European roots, although I can’t find what path the locative took to get to English today. Either way your should feel happy, because this is like finding a cool woolly mammoth fossil in your back yard!)
With grammar you have rules and exceptions in all languages. With weird grammatical cases in English, their use (as in “I’m in school”) is typically an exception to the rule of how we use articles like “a” and “the” with nouns (as in “I’m in the office”).
A more fun and familiar example of the locative case is in the word “home”, where the word itself is different from the nominative/accusative case “house”. This among other things is famously illustrated and parodied in the [“Romanes Eunt Domus”/”Romans Go Home”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum) scene of *Monty Python*. (The WP article is quite short; there’s also a neat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE). But of course first watch [the famous scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s).)
You’ve identified a rare example of the [locative case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locative_adverb) in English. (Well, possibly — depends on the analyst; also this is not the linguistics I was taught.) [Grammarphobia 2014](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/10/here-3.html) has a good discussion on the English locative, where it comes up, and why its classification is debatable. (The “existence” of these weird cases in English is usually debatable — they are relics of our deep Indo-European roots, although I can’t find what path the locative took to get to English today. Either way your should feel happy, because this is like finding a cool woolly mammoth fossil in your back yard!)
With grammar you have rules and exceptions in all languages. With weird grammatical cases in English, their use (as in “I’m in school”) is typically an exception to the rule of how we use articles like “a” and “the” with nouns (as in “I’m in the office”).
A more fun and familiar example of the locative case is in the word “home”, where the word itself is different from the nominative/accusative case “house”. This among other things is famously illustrated and parodied in the [“Romanes Eunt Domus”/”Romans Go Home”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum) scene of *Monty Python*. (The WP article is quite short; there’s also a neat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE). But of course first watch [the famous scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s).)
You’ve identified a rare example of the [locative case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locative_adverb) in English. (Well, possibly — depends on the analyst; also this is not the linguistics I was taught.) [Grammarphobia 2014](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/10/here-3.html) has a good discussion on the English locative, where it comes up, and why its classification is debatable. (The “existence” of these weird cases in English is usually debatable — they are relics of our deep Indo-European roots, although I can’t find what path the locative took to get to English today. Either way your should feel happy, because this is like finding a cool woolly mammoth fossil in your back yard!)
With grammar you have rules and exceptions in all languages. With weird grammatical cases in English, their use (as in “I’m in school”) is typically an exception to the rule of how we use articles like “a” and “the” with nouns (as in “I’m in the office”).
A more fun and familiar example of the locative case is in the word “home”, where the word itself is different from the nominative/accusative case “house”. This among other things is famously illustrated and parodied in the [“Romanes Eunt Domus”/”Romans Go Home”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum) scene of *Monty Python*. (The WP article is quite short; there’s also a neat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE). But of course first watch [the famous scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s).)
Latest Answers